- Email: [email protected]
Integration of CAD Tools in Damage Management System
9th IFAC Conference on Manoeuvring and Control of Marine Craft, 2012 The International Federation of Automatic Control September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
Integration of CAD Tools in Damage Management System Luisa Mancarella*, Francesca Calabrese*, Alessandro Antonio Zizzari**, Angelo Corallo***
* Apphia s.r.l. Via Clementina Carrelli, 73100 Lecce, Italy Email: [luisa.mancarella, francesca.calabrese]@apphia.it, web page: http://www.apphia.it. ** Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa (CCII), University of Salento c/o Euro-Mediterranean Incubator, Campus Ecotekne, Via Monteroni s.n., 73100 Lecce, Italy Email: [email protected], web page: http://www.cpdm.unisalento.it *** Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Via Monteroni s.n., 73100 Lecce, Italy Email: [email protected] Abstract: This paper focuses on the implementation of an advanced CAD integrated application for shipboard safety control systems. Damage Control Management System (DCMS) is a software module included into the Damage Control System (DCS), developed by the researchers of Apphia s.r.l. and CCII (Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa) of University of Salento. Keywords: CAD tool, Human Machine Interface, damage management system.
1. INTRODUCTION This paper represents the principal features of a system to handle ship safety. The primary requirement is to group all information and display them to the operator in an organized and optimized way: all relevant data acquired by the subsystems onboard and needed to handle damages and also manual input of all data not automatically acquired by the system (Tate 1991 and 1993). Researchers of Apphia s.r.l. and CCII (Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa) of University of Salento developed a software module, Damage Control Management System (DCMS), included into the Damage Control System (DCS) [Calabrese et al. (2012a)]. Crucial feature of the application is the possibility to have a high informative content management based on gradual levels of investigation in the same Human Machine Interface (HMI), using an innovative CAD integrated approach. It comes from the efforts of Apphia s.r.l., an engineering company specializing in research and development in many areas of intervention, such control systems and automation, innovative manufacturing and engineering analysis. The software tool is responsible to solve in simple manner the visualization and animation of all devices, considering the complexity of the drawing, the computational load of the operations that must be executed and the performance limits of machine used for DCS. In fact, the final result furnished to the operator must be an intuitive tool to visualize the complete situation on all ship decks. Static and dynamic information are used to furnish a complete overview of subsystems.
©2012 IFAC
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Static information are represented by subsystems layout concerned with onboard security such as ventilation, fire main, salvage system and so on. Dynamic information are represented by CAD objects used as devices (fire, smoke and flooding sensor, doors and others), configured into CAD files, and automatically managed by DCMS for monitoring and control. Plan and isometric views are furnished to the operator to localize normal and alarm conditions by animation of dynamic objects. 2. RESEARCH MOTIVATION AND APPROACH 2.1 Research Motivation This paper presents details of various visualization aspects developed for automation methods for shipboard systems. Automation methods developed for naval applications require good visualization and information retrieval tools to assess the effect of damage on the systems. The management of typical ship damage monitoring and control needs to rapidly verify the status of many components present onboard such as fire sensors, flooding sensors, door sensors, fans, pumps. Considering the quantity and complexity of involved objects into different ship zones, CAD representation is considered by the authors the most appropriate approach. In this paper decisions and motivations about the CAD choice and the approach used in the customization of the complex information in naval field are discussed.
10.3182/20120919-3-IT-2046.00021
IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
2.2 Architecture The general IPMS architecture (Fig. 1) comprises MultiFunction Consoles (MFCs) and Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). MFCs (laptops and workstations in the figure) provide the human - machine interface (HMI) for the operators at various shipboard locations whereas RTUs are used for process level data acquisition and control. RTUs are then connected to sensors (e.g. FDS – fire detection sensors in the figure). The IPMS has a runtime part which is a custom application that allows to monitor and control the ship in each configured MFC. Within the IPMS, the DCS has been designed to rapidly identify damage conditions and to manage emergency states [Calabrese et al. (2012a)].
Fig. 1. IPMS Architecture. DCMS module is the core of the DCS system and it has the following functions: 1. Acquire all relevant data for the ship safety, as well as other data needed to handle damages, providing manual input of data not automatically acquired by the system. 2. Display such data to the operator in an organized and optimized way to handle safety. 3. Handle alarms. 4. Share the information between the various Multi Function Consoles (MFCs). 3. DCMS FUNCTIONALITIES AND DESCRIPTION 3.1 DCMS motivations DCMS allows operators the ship visualization and to appreciate the general arrangement, the subsystems layout involved in damage control and the devices with related loops animated according to the real-time acquired status. At this aim, it manages an unique CAD file that contains the plan-isometric view of all decks. An example of DCMS visualization is reported in Fig. 2.
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Fig. 2. Example of DCMS interface. The content of various CAD drawings, related to different ship subsystems, is logically unified in an unique file source, opportunely configured to allow the communication between CAD data and the devices status information automatically coming from the field and/or manually insert by operators. The ship view is very complex for two aspects: 1. Decks representation: the quantity of objects to be visualized is very high. 2. Management facility: the operator must be able to have a simple management of the system to identify and easily control the eventual damage condition. The view must be clear and it must not distract the operator. In this section decisions and motivations about the selection and the type of information considered necessary for DCMS are described. Ship information managed by DCMS is subdivided in two types as follows: • static information; • dynamic information. Static information includes ship layout and other DCS useful subsystems layout displayed. The adjective static stresses the fact that there is no information that changes after configuration of the system. Furthermore, the management of a very high information quantity requires to distinguish the information that must be always visible on the screen and the information that can be visualized as overlay. Dynamic information includes the objects which must be animated according to the field, collected and enveloped in a UDP message package by the Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), such as fire sensors, flooding sensors, door sensors always visible in the general view. Fig. 3 shows the DCMS logic diagram: the CAD file contains static and dynamic objects. DCMS Core acquires the data coming from the real sensors linked to RTUs and performs the operations necessary to attribute the sensor status to the associated configured dynamic object present in the CAD file.
IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
3.3 DCMS Structure DCMS is subdivided in the following areas: Summary area Plan/isometric view Side view Manual icon list DCS alarm panel Summary Area allows to highlight the status of appropriate devices as fire pumps and it allows to update their status either manually or automatically capturing data from the field (Fig. 5).
Fig. 3. DCMS logic diagram.
3.2 DCMS Functionalities To solve the complexity of the view the following functionalities are implemented: • De-clutter: it allows the operator to have a gradual representation of view: the details are visible only at adequate zoom level furnishing a level of accurate information. • Overlay: it allows the operator to choose the DCS information to be visible or hidden at the same time or in mixed combinations. The de-clutter functionality is realized according to a logic of assignation of details to different layers of the CAD file and it is applied to subsystems information and also to the elements to be displayed as overlay. Hence the various detail layers are established and to each layer is assigned a specific zoom level automatically managed by the software. The elements displayed as overlay (called “Overlay Element” (OE)) are all subsystems useful to manage a possible damage condition such as Fire Main System, Salvage System, Ballast/De-Ballast System, Ventilation, Fire Fighting Equipment and so on. OEs are unrelated to “Command Management” used in Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), i.e. by the view it is impossible to click on an object-actuator and to execute the direct command. Each OE is shown only on request. Fig. 4 shows an example of de-cluttering and overlay application in a CAD file that represents a ship compartment.
Fig. 5. Summary area and manual update window. Side View represents a longitudinal view of the ship. It highlights alarmed zone of ship (understood as deck and water tight) and allows the operator to link with desired zone in planar view (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Side view in case of alarm. Manual Icon List reports all the manual alarms inserted by the operator while DCS alarm panel detects all the alarms coming from the field. Plan/isometric view is the main module of DCMS. The main features of the plan/isometric view have already been described in the previous section and facilitate the operator in monitoring and control, providing an immediate and always more realistic work environment. In addition, other basic functions are implemented in DCMS, such as zoom, pan, rubber band, magnifying. Also it is possible to add manual alarm directly on the view in the suitable compartment and see a legend of various elements of CAD file. Fig. 4. Example of de-clutter and OE applications.
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IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
3.4 Visualization aspects The operator is able to increase the details on a particular damaged zone and, at the same time, to know the details and arrangement not only of that zone, but also of all surrounding areas in the same graphic interface, without the necessity to recover the information in different places. The information is concentrated in a unique scenario, but visualized to the operator according to his choice and necessity by opportune software functionalities (for example: zoom, magnifying, rubber band, de-clutter and overlay). DCMS software allows the operator to vary the zoom level: the software automatically manages to turn off or turn on the necessary layers to the desired visualization. The management of all ship conditions is also optimized by the use of opportune summaries related to the state of the principal subsystems, always present in the HMI (shown on the right of Fig. 7), in manner to rapidly and simply identify damaged zones, to prevent and/or operate for limiting the damage. An intuitive and user-friendly approach is obtained, which improves the man response time facilitating the complex management of shipboard operations. Fig. 7 shows how the dynamic information of various devices can be displayed. Each of these objects (such as fire sensors, flooding sensors, doors, …) needs to be configured in the CAD file. It is designed as a block and placed on the DCMS CAD file. The software changes the object color, depending upon the status of the same. The alarm is automatically
introduced in ship view by using graphical objects on the base of RTU data communication. For example, in Fig. 7, the sensors shown in green filled color are in normal condition, while the red filled objects indicate the sensors in alarm condition. The interaction of DCMS with other modules allows to manage an incident. All DCS information require an adequate subdivision in layers according to de-clutter and overlay logic. In the CAD file, each de-clutter level is contained in a layer, opportunely configured. The subdivision of the systems in de-clutter levels happens in the configuration phase. The elements are distributed according to the typology (for example all pipes are on one layer). Each group of elements (i.e. DCS subsystems and OEs), of which it wants to realize the declutter on the view, must be subdivided in other layers that then will respect the visualization according to zoom level. This allows to opportunely manage the drawing complexity, because each layer will be visible only over a zoom level established by software. The link to other functionalities related to Decision Support System (DSS) [Calabrese et al. (2012b)] and ship stability asset happens in a common user graphical scenario, because the software has been developed according to a modular structure of the configurable damage application included in Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) environment.
Fig. 7. Example of behaviour of devices in case of dynamic information.
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IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
4. PROS AND CONS ABOUT THE USE OF CAD FILE The limit on the layers number for the CAD format is equal to 256. This number is more superior to that required for this application so this choice is appropriate to the requirement. The pros related to the use of an unique CAD file are the following: 1. Input file: the input file furnished by the Shipyard for layout is in CAD format, so the time of configuration is reduced because it is not necessary to create from the beginning a new drawing. 2. Drawing modification: if it is necessary to modify the drawing in consequence of a change in layout of plants, or a devices, piping, etc., the unique action to be executed is to modify the particular detail of AutoCAD file, preserving all remaining graphic objects. The substitution operation in DCS configuration is simple and are not required special technical competences to do it. This operation can be effected without modifying the software. 3. Automatic object identification: the configuration of all devices happens in the AutoCAD environment using a simple procedure. So to add, delete or modify an object does not require software modification. 4. De-clutter modification: the detail to be visualized in function of de-clutter (for the information always visible on the screen and for subsystem overlay) can be modified with the simple operations of moving the graphic objects in CAD from a layer to another one. Therefore this operation can be carried out without modifying the software. The unique action is the substitution of file AutoCAD within the DCS configuration. The cons of the unique CAD file are: 1. File size: the file size depends by the ship dimensions, i.e. by the quantity of objects to be reported and animated on various decks. A feasible solution to solve the file size issue may be to subdivide ship decks in two or more different files. 2. Numeric fields missing: at the moment of paper writing, it is impossible to insert numeric fields that change according to RTU state (for example, it is missing a field that changes its value acquiring in run-time the measure coming from the field: at t0 the field x is equal to x = 0.50 [cm], at t1 time x = 1.75 [cm]. This aspect will be examined as improvement. 5. CONCLUSIONS Visualization aspects for shipboard power systems are presented in this paper. The integration of CAD tools for naval applications has been presented and its advantages demonstrated. This results could be applied in different automation applications such as failure assessment, service restoration and reconfiguration for shipboard power systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are grateful to the persons who have collaborated in the design and implementation activities. The main activities was done in the Paint-Lab (Partneship Avio ISUFI 125
for New Technologies) present into IBIL building, directly connected to the main Avio S.p.A. technological platform, enabling the team in Lecce to meet virtually more people of IT department of Avio, to access the hardware and software resources of Avio and cooperate directly in the technology development. REFERENCES AutoCAD Official Site: http://usa.autodesk.com, last see online 17th August 2012 Bøgh, S.A., Severinsen, T., (2009). Damage management control system on the Danish navy ships, In Proceedings of the 14th International Ship Control Systems Symposium (SCSS), Ottawa, Canada. Butler-Purny, K.L., Sarma, N.D.R., (2003). Visualization for shipboard power system, Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS’03), Hawaii, USA. Calabrese, F., Cataldo, M., Corallo, A, De Pascalis, A., Mancarella, L., Ostuni, L., Zizzari, A.A., (2012). Damage Control System: an application for ship safety and security, In Proceedings of 9th IFAC Conference on Manoeuvring and Control of Marine Craft (MCMC2012), 19-21 September 2012, Arenzano (GE), Italy. Calabrese, F., Corallo, A., Margherita, A., Zizzari, A.A. (2012), A knowledge-based decision support system for shipboard damage control, In Expert System with Application, Vol. 39, Nr. 9, p. 8204-8211. Tate, D.L. (1991), A graphical user interface design for shipboard damage control, NRL Report 9355. Tate, D.L. (1993), The damage control information display system for the ex-USS shadwell, NRL Report NRL/FR/5535-93-9589.
Integration of CAD Tools in Damage Management System Luisa Mancarella*, Francesca Calabrese*, Alessandro Antonio Zizzari**, Angelo Corallo***
* Apphia s.r.l. Via Clementina Carrelli, 73100 Lecce, Italy Email: [luisa.mancarella, francesca.calabrese]@apphia.it, web page: http://www.apphia.it. ** Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa (CCII), University of Salento c/o Euro-Mediterranean Incubator, Campus Ecotekne, Via Monteroni s.n., 73100 Lecce, Italy Email: [email protected], web page: http://www.cpdm.unisalento.it *** Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Via Monteroni s.n., 73100 Lecce, Italy Email: [email protected] Abstract: This paper focuses on the implementation of an advanced CAD integrated application for shipboard safety control systems. Damage Control Management System (DCMS) is a software module included into the Damage Control System (DCS), developed by the researchers of Apphia s.r.l. and CCII (Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa) of University of Salento. Keywords: CAD tool, Human Machine Interface, damage management system.
1. INTRODUCTION This paper represents the principal features of a system to handle ship safety. The primary requirement is to group all information and display them to the operator in an organized and optimized way: all relevant data acquired by the subsystems onboard and needed to handle damages and also manual input of all data not automatically acquired by the system (Tate 1991 and 1993). Researchers of Apphia s.r.l. and CCII (Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa) of University of Salento developed a software module, Damage Control Management System (DCMS), included into the Damage Control System (DCS) [Calabrese et al. (2012a)]. Crucial feature of the application is the possibility to have a high informative content management based on gradual levels of investigation in the same Human Machine Interface (HMI), using an innovative CAD integrated approach. It comes from the efforts of Apphia s.r.l., an engineering company specializing in research and development in many areas of intervention, such control systems and automation, innovative manufacturing and engineering analysis. The software tool is responsible to solve in simple manner the visualization and animation of all devices, considering the complexity of the drawing, the computational load of the operations that must be executed and the performance limits of machine used for DCS. In fact, the final result furnished to the operator must be an intuitive tool to visualize the complete situation on all ship decks. Static and dynamic information are used to furnish a complete overview of subsystems.
©2012 IFAC
121
Static information are represented by subsystems layout concerned with onboard security such as ventilation, fire main, salvage system and so on. Dynamic information are represented by CAD objects used as devices (fire, smoke and flooding sensor, doors and others), configured into CAD files, and automatically managed by DCMS for monitoring and control. Plan and isometric views are furnished to the operator to localize normal and alarm conditions by animation of dynamic objects. 2. RESEARCH MOTIVATION AND APPROACH 2.1 Research Motivation This paper presents details of various visualization aspects developed for automation methods for shipboard systems. Automation methods developed for naval applications require good visualization and information retrieval tools to assess the effect of damage on the systems. The management of typical ship damage monitoring and control needs to rapidly verify the status of many components present onboard such as fire sensors, flooding sensors, door sensors, fans, pumps. Considering the quantity and complexity of involved objects into different ship zones, CAD representation is considered by the authors the most appropriate approach. In this paper decisions and motivations about the CAD choice and the approach used in the customization of the complex information in naval field are discussed.
10.3182/20120919-3-IT-2046.00021
IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
2.2 Architecture The general IPMS architecture (Fig. 1) comprises MultiFunction Consoles (MFCs) and Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). MFCs (laptops and workstations in the figure) provide the human - machine interface (HMI) for the operators at various shipboard locations whereas RTUs are used for process level data acquisition and control. RTUs are then connected to sensors (e.g. FDS – fire detection sensors in the figure). The IPMS has a runtime part which is a custom application that allows to monitor and control the ship in each configured MFC. Within the IPMS, the DCS has been designed to rapidly identify damage conditions and to manage emergency states [Calabrese et al. (2012a)].
Fig. 1. IPMS Architecture. DCMS module is the core of the DCS system and it has the following functions: 1. Acquire all relevant data for the ship safety, as well as other data needed to handle damages, providing manual input of data not automatically acquired by the system. 2. Display such data to the operator in an organized and optimized way to handle safety. 3. Handle alarms. 4. Share the information between the various Multi Function Consoles (MFCs). 3. DCMS FUNCTIONALITIES AND DESCRIPTION 3.1 DCMS motivations DCMS allows operators the ship visualization and to appreciate the general arrangement, the subsystems layout involved in damage control and the devices with related loops animated according to the real-time acquired status. At this aim, it manages an unique CAD file that contains the plan-isometric view of all decks. An example of DCMS visualization is reported in Fig. 2.
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Fig. 2. Example of DCMS interface. The content of various CAD drawings, related to different ship subsystems, is logically unified in an unique file source, opportunely configured to allow the communication between CAD data and the devices status information automatically coming from the field and/or manually insert by operators. The ship view is very complex for two aspects: 1. Decks representation: the quantity of objects to be visualized is very high. 2. Management facility: the operator must be able to have a simple management of the system to identify and easily control the eventual damage condition. The view must be clear and it must not distract the operator. In this section decisions and motivations about the selection and the type of information considered necessary for DCMS are described. Ship information managed by DCMS is subdivided in two types as follows: • static information; • dynamic information. Static information includes ship layout and other DCS useful subsystems layout displayed. The adjective static stresses the fact that there is no information that changes after configuration of the system. Furthermore, the management of a very high information quantity requires to distinguish the information that must be always visible on the screen and the information that can be visualized as overlay. Dynamic information includes the objects which must be animated according to the field, collected and enveloped in a UDP message package by the Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), such as fire sensors, flooding sensors, door sensors always visible in the general view. Fig. 3 shows the DCMS logic diagram: the CAD file contains static and dynamic objects. DCMS Core acquires the data coming from the real sensors linked to RTUs and performs the operations necessary to attribute the sensor status to the associated configured dynamic object present in the CAD file.
IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
3.3 DCMS Structure DCMS is subdivided in the following areas: Summary area Plan/isometric view Side view Manual icon list DCS alarm panel Summary Area allows to highlight the status of appropriate devices as fire pumps and it allows to update their status either manually or automatically capturing data from the field (Fig. 5).
Fig. 3. DCMS logic diagram.
3.2 DCMS Functionalities To solve the complexity of the view the following functionalities are implemented: • De-clutter: it allows the operator to have a gradual representation of view: the details are visible only at adequate zoom level furnishing a level of accurate information. • Overlay: it allows the operator to choose the DCS information to be visible or hidden at the same time or in mixed combinations. The de-clutter functionality is realized according to a logic of assignation of details to different layers of the CAD file and it is applied to subsystems information and also to the elements to be displayed as overlay. Hence the various detail layers are established and to each layer is assigned a specific zoom level automatically managed by the software. The elements displayed as overlay (called “Overlay Element” (OE)) are all subsystems useful to manage a possible damage condition such as Fire Main System, Salvage System, Ballast/De-Ballast System, Ventilation, Fire Fighting Equipment and so on. OEs are unrelated to “Command Management” used in Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), i.e. by the view it is impossible to click on an object-actuator and to execute the direct command. Each OE is shown only on request. Fig. 4 shows an example of de-cluttering and overlay application in a CAD file that represents a ship compartment.
Fig. 5. Summary area and manual update window. Side View represents a longitudinal view of the ship. It highlights alarmed zone of ship (understood as deck and water tight) and allows the operator to link with desired zone in planar view (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Side view in case of alarm. Manual Icon List reports all the manual alarms inserted by the operator while DCS alarm panel detects all the alarms coming from the field. Plan/isometric view is the main module of DCMS. The main features of the plan/isometric view have already been described in the previous section and facilitate the operator in monitoring and control, providing an immediate and always more realistic work environment. In addition, other basic functions are implemented in DCMS, such as zoom, pan, rubber band, magnifying. Also it is possible to add manual alarm directly on the view in the suitable compartment and see a legend of various elements of CAD file. Fig. 4. Example of de-clutter and OE applications.
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IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
3.4 Visualization aspects The operator is able to increase the details on a particular damaged zone and, at the same time, to know the details and arrangement not only of that zone, but also of all surrounding areas in the same graphic interface, without the necessity to recover the information in different places. The information is concentrated in a unique scenario, but visualized to the operator according to his choice and necessity by opportune software functionalities (for example: zoom, magnifying, rubber band, de-clutter and overlay). DCMS software allows the operator to vary the zoom level: the software automatically manages to turn off or turn on the necessary layers to the desired visualization. The management of all ship conditions is also optimized by the use of opportune summaries related to the state of the principal subsystems, always present in the HMI (shown on the right of Fig. 7), in manner to rapidly and simply identify damaged zones, to prevent and/or operate for limiting the damage. An intuitive and user-friendly approach is obtained, which improves the man response time facilitating the complex management of shipboard operations. Fig. 7 shows how the dynamic information of various devices can be displayed. Each of these objects (such as fire sensors, flooding sensors, doors, …) needs to be configured in the CAD file. It is designed as a block and placed on the DCMS CAD file. The software changes the object color, depending upon the status of the same. The alarm is automatically
introduced in ship view by using graphical objects on the base of RTU data communication. For example, in Fig. 7, the sensors shown in green filled color are in normal condition, while the red filled objects indicate the sensors in alarm condition. The interaction of DCMS with other modules allows to manage an incident. All DCS information require an adequate subdivision in layers according to de-clutter and overlay logic. In the CAD file, each de-clutter level is contained in a layer, opportunely configured. The subdivision of the systems in de-clutter levels happens in the configuration phase. The elements are distributed according to the typology (for example all pipes are on one layer). Each group of elements (i.e. DCS subsystems and OEs), of which it wants to realize the declutter on the view, must be subdivided in other layers that then will respect the visualization according to zoom level. This allows to opportunely manage the drawing complexity, because each layer will be visible only over a zoom level established by software. The link to other functionalities related to Decision Support System (DSS) [Calabrese et al. (2012b)] and ship stability asset happens in a common user graphical scenario, because the software has been developed according to a modular structure of the configurable damage application included in Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) environment.
Fig. 7. Example of behaviour of devices in case of dynamic information.
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IFAC MCMC 2012 September 19-21, 2012. Arenzano, Italy
4. PROS AND CONS ABOUT THE USE OF CAD FILE The limit on the layers number for the CAD format is equal to 256. This number is more superior to that required for this application so this choice is appropriate to the requirement. The pros related to the use of an unique CAD file are the following: 1. Input file: the input file furnished by the Shipyard for layout is in CAD format, so the time of configuration is reduced because it is not necessary to create from the beginning a new drawing. 2. Drawing modification: if it is necessary to modify the drawing in consequence of a change in layout of plants, or a devices, piping, etc., the unique action to be executed is to modify the particular detail of AutoCAD file, preserving all remaining graphic objects. The substitution operation in DCS configuration is simple and are not required special technical competences to do it. This operation can be effected without modifying the software. 3. Automatic object identification: the configuration of all devices happens in the AutoCAD environment using a simple procedure. So to add, delete or modify an object does not require software modification. 4. De-clutter modification: the detail to be visualized in function of de-clutter (for the information always visible on the screen and for subsystem overlay) can be modified with the simple operations of moving the graphic objects in CAD from a layer to another one. Therefore this operation can be carried out without modifying the software. The unique action is the substitution of file AutoCAD within the DCS configuration. The cons of the unique CAD file are: 1. File size: the file size depends by the ship dimensions, i.e. by the quantity of objects to be reported and animated on various decks. A feasible solution to solve the file size issue may be to subdivide ship decks in two or more different files. 2. Numeric fields missing: at the moment of paper writing, it is impossible to insert numeric fields that change according to RTU state (for example, it is missing a field that changes its value acquiring in run-time the measure coming from the field: at t0 the field x is equal to x = 0.50 [cm], at t1 time x = 1.75 [cm]. This aspect will be examined as improvement. 5. CONCLUSIONS Visualization aspects for shipboard power systems are presented in this paper. The integration of CAD tools for naval applications has been presented and its advantages demonstrated. This results could be applied in different automation applications such as failure assessment, service restoration and reconfiguration for shipboard power systems.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are grateful to the persons who have collaborated in the design and implementation activities. The main activities was done in the Paint-Lab (Partneship Avio ISUFI 125
for New Technologies) present into IBIL building, directly connected to the main Avio S.p.A. technological platform, enabling the team in Lecce to meet virtually more people of IT department of Avio, to access the hardware and software resources of Avio and cooperate directly in the technology development. REFERENCES AutoCAD Official Site: http://usa.autodesk.com, last see online 17th August 2012 Bøgh, S.A., Severinsen, T., (2009). Damage management control system on the Danish navy ships, In Proceedings of the 14th International Ship Control Systems Symposium (SCSS), Ottawa, Canada. Butler-Purny, K.L., Sarma, N.D.R., (2003). Visualization for shipboard power system, Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS’03), Hawaii, USA. Calabrese, F., Cataldo, M., Corallo, A, De Pascalis, A., Mancarella, L., Ostuni, L., Zizzari, A.A., (2012). Damage Control System: an application for ship safety and security, In Proceedings of 9th IFAC Conference on Manoeuvring and Control of Marine Craft (MCMC2012), 19-21 September 2012, Arenzano (GE), Italy. Calabrese, F., Corallo, A., Margherita, A., Zizzari, A.A. (2012), A knowledge-based decision support system for shipboard damage control, In Expert System with Application, Vol. 39, Nr. 9, p. 8204-8211. Tate, D.L. (1991), A graphical user interface design for shipboard damage control, NRL Report 9355. Tate, D.L. (1993), The damage control information display system for the ex-USS shadwell, NRL Report NRL/FR/5535-93-9589.